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Photo by Reed Hutchinson |
Jennifer Wolf, Mauricio "Reese" Ramos and Thomas Kosakowski |
Got a gripe? Take it to the Ombuds Office
BY Anne Burke
Today Staff Writer
The employee’s complaint, recalled Mauricio “Reese” Ramos, interim director of UCLA’s Office of Ombuds Services, was typical of many he hears these days. What it boiled down to, he said, was a lack of respect, or at least that’s the way it seemed to the employee.
Ramos remembers that the employee tearfully told him about being upbraided in front of coworkers. “The person said, ‘You know, Reese, it’s not so much what the (supervisor) told me. They were right. I messed up. But I was really disappointed in the way this person reprimanded me in front of everybody.’ ”
For employees like this aggrieved staffer, Ramos’ office, located on the first floor of the Strathmore Building, is a combination therapist’s office, reference room, sanctuary and mediation center.
Business is growing, partly because a third ombudsperson joined the staff, allowing the caseload to increase from 568 last year to an expected 900 this year, Ramos said. Most of the people who contact the office are staff members and students, and a lot of their complaints “seem to be about lack of respect, or a sense of disempowerment or lack of recognition in the workplace,” he explained.
Any employee or student can come to the office to find a listening ear, a box of tissues and help. Cases, as the office calls clients, meet privately with Ramos or one of his colleagues, Jennifer Wolf and Thomas A. Kosakowski, in soothing surroundings embellished by blond wood furnishings, blue upholstery and lots of plants. A pagoda-shaped waterfall gurgles pleasantly in Kosakowski’s office.
The ombudsperson works with feuding coworkers, staffers angry at their supervisors, students disgruntled over bad grades, people frustrated by the university’s daunting bureaucracy — basically anyone who doesn’t know where to go or what to do with a problem. The ombudsperson might offer counseling or arrange a meeting with the other side, but never takes sides or tells anybody what to do.
The impartiality isn’t always popular with people who feel wronged, but “We have to make clear that we’re not here to advocate for any side; we’re here to advocate for a fair process,” Wolf said.
The office, which has been around since the late 1960s, handles everything informally, unofficially and confidentially. While a department chair would be obliged to report a suspected case of sexual harassment to the proper authorities, the Ombuds Office is not similarly bound. Someone who thought that he or she were being sexually harassed, but wasn’t really sure, could go to Ramos, confident that the conversation would never leave the room.
Some cases are easy to resolve, others not. “Sometimes people come in and they just want to vent. Once they’ve chatted about it, they feel so much better and that’s the last we’ll ever hear from them,” Wolf said. “Other cases are much more complex and involve many parties, and when you start peeling away the layers, things can take a couple of weeks to sort through.”
The Office for Students With Dis-abilities frequently sends complainants to the Ombuds Office. “They’re not looking at who’s at fault or who’s guilty,” noted Kathy Molini, director of that office. “They try to look at a situation as objectively as possible and just help the person achieve some kind of resolution.” |
